The Ten Biggest Mistakes a Writer Makes

 

Stephen Barbara, literary agent at the Donald Maass Agency, once wrote:

Recently, funny things have been happening in my slush pile. I find myself receiving well-written, correctly formatted, professional-looking query letters from bad writers. Imagine my chagrin: one minute I'm intrigued by a smoothly crafted query letter, the next I'm staring down at a crackpot writing sample. For a literary agent who receives some 5,000 queries a year, this is a disastrous turn of affairs. I feel like those European naturalists who first set eyes on the platypus. Suddenly, nothing is easily classified.

Time was, bad writers wrote bad query letters. These writers hammed up their lack of talent and know-how. They typed their queries on law office stationery; they cold-called your office; they mailed their queries to outdated addresses culled from the 1997 edition of Writers Marketplace; they sent head shots; their return address was a prison; they wrote longhand in red crayon on college-ruled paper. Bad had a look; bad was obvious.

We are living in a brutally competitive publishing climate, and perhaps it's symbolic of the times that writers have made the query letter the true subject of their literary ambition. Evidently the 20th-century ambition of writing the great American novel is passé; what one now desires is to write the Great American Query Letter. (Stephen Barbara, “The Great American Query Letter,” PublishersWeekly.com)

With that, let’s look at the ten biggest mistakes writers make—and how you can become a writer of the great American novel.

Not Knowing Who Your Reader Is
Beginners are often surprised to learn they have to write to a reader, and sometimes there is an age group that goes along with their genre. Beginners also seemed stumped by the fact there are different types of imprints (or subgenres) within their genre, each with specific guidelines.

Not Developing a Good Character
The most important part of your book is your characters. Readers like fully developed characters. If you don’t have a character, you don’t have a plot. You don’t have anything but an un-hatched idea.
You have to know your protagonist better than you know your best friend. This person who drives your book must be both proactive and sympathetic. That means you need to know the hole in that character’s life, something that probably began in childhood.
You have to do the same work on your antagonist—be his/her therapist. People don’t get up in the morning thinking, “I’m a rotten SOB, and I am gonna ruin someone’s day.” The good have flaws, and the bad have reasons. In order to find your antagonist’s reasons, you will have to go back to that person’s childhood as well.

Not Having a Hook
Remember, the reader can preview before hitting that “buy” link. If your first chapter is backstory and the character is thinking about her life, Robinson Crusoe style, you aren’t going to make the sale. A hook has to surprise you, engage you, and pull you in. It can’t be all backstory, and it most definitely can’t be all action.

Not Fixing Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar
This one goes without saying. If you’re not confident in your ability to do that, hire someone to help.

Not Understanding Point of View
Get into the character’s head and show us the story as it happens to the character. Don’t just tell us a story about the character.

Not Getting Quality Feedback
Join a writers’ group. Send your manuscript out to beta readers. And whatever you do, listen to the feedback you get. You might not always agree, but if more than one person thinks something is weak, and you think it’s great, you need to consider that you might be looking at your work with blind eyes. Take a deep breath. Be open minded. Let your guard down, and you just might be surprised by what happens.
If one person tells you something you do not want to hear, consider it. If two people say the same thing, think hard about it. If three or more people say the same thing, suck it up and admit you are wrong.

Failing to Rewrite
The stunningly talented Michael Crichton famously said, “Books aren’t written—they’re rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn’t quite done it.”
Never do a major rewrite before a book is done. Many beginners spin their gears rewriting and rewriting only to find they need to rewrite after they’ve finished their manuscript. They need to wait to see the “whole picture” so the flaws jump out in places that need rewriting. Editing is a very important learning curve for beginners. This is where a beginning writer starts their journey to becoming an author. To finish a project is important. Whether the book idea is good or bad, to finish the project is a huge accomplishment.

Getting Distracted
In theory, multitasking sounds brave and competent. Truth be told, however, it’s more accurate to describe multitasking as “being distracted.” Stay focused on what you’re doing. If you have a lot of other stuff to get done, carve out a time when you can be completely dedicated to the task of writing, even if it’s only half an hour.

Not Having a Blog or Website
Make sure it’s done well, but make sure you have one. It’s free advertising and some of the most effective marketing you can do.

Giving Up Too Soon
Don’t throw your novel out to self-publishing if you are not ready. Try to get a publisher first, and try long and hard. Don’t put out something sub-standard just because you are in a rush or afraid of the process or you don’t agree with the feedback. That first novel can haunt you for the rest of your life or can kick your career into orbit.

(Photos: eraser, budtoboss.com; Indiana Jones, Gizmodo UK; feedback, dianesuffridgephd.com)